Five years after a Government announced the upgrade the A66, two major improvement schemes are about to be completed. But has the road, once dubbed Britians most dangerous, really been fixed? Stuart Arnold reports.

IT has been a year in the offing - or much longer depending on your point of view - but from next month, motorists using the A66 between North Yorkshire and Cumbria should do so more safely.

Two single-track stretches of the route totalling seven miles between Scotch Corner and Carkin Moor, and Stephen Bank and Greta Bridge, will become dual carriageway towards the end of next month. On both sections of the A66, there were 22 deaths and 91 serious injuries between 1992 and 2005.

The completion of the work, carried out by Balfour Beatty and overseen by the Highways Agency, is the culmination of years of planning, and follows an announcement by then Transport Minister John Spellar in August 2002 that the A66 would be upgraded.

Mr Spellar recommended that as well as the two improvement schemes in North Yorkshire and County Durham, the carriageway also be extended at Temple Sowerby, in Cumbria.

However, he ultimately fell short of committing to a full dual carriageway upgrade along the entire length of the A66 from Scotch Corner to Penrith, which The Northern Echo pressed for in its Fix The A66 campaign, which was launched in 1995.

A report by consultancy company Maunsell in 2001 had also backed the newspaper's view, calling for full dualling.

Three stretches of single carriageway remain in our region, and there appears to be no immediate prospect of them being dualled.

They include the so-called missing link - a 4.35-mile (7km) section of single carriageway between the two improvement schemes.

Another section, of 0.93 miles (1.5km), remains between Greta Bridge and Cross Lanes, near Barnard Castle.

Earlier this year, North Yorkshire County Councillor Michael Heseltine, who has campaigned for many years for A66 improvements, said there was still a strong local wish that stretches such as these be dualled.

The problem is that no further schemes were deemed a priority for Government cash by the Regional Transport Board (RTB) during the last round of funding allocations, last year.

The RTB is a quango, consisting of representatives from the likes of development agency One NorthEast, the North East Chamber of Commerce, the North-East Assembly, the Association of North-East Councils, and the Government Office NorthEast.

It issues advice to ministers on which road schemes should be eligible for Government money.

The board, which acts on behalf of the region, has defended its position and said there was a limited amount of funding available to go round, with other schemes having been considered higher priorities. It has given no clue as to whether further improvements could be prioritised and considered for funding in the future.

Hilary Bond, whose house at Cross Lanes borders a single-carriageway section, believes that by taking what she calls a piecemeal approach to upgrading the A66, the powers that be have failed to tackle fully the safety risks that remain. She said that most accidents happened where dual carriageways narrow to single carriageway, the belief being that motorists often attempt to overtake at speed to avoid bottlenecks, or simply ignore signs and fail to slow down when the carriageway narrows.

The mother-of-two said that in the past three years, three people have died in accidents near her home. The last major accident was in December, when a lorry driver lost control of his vehicle, which slid to within inches of her house.

Ms Bond said: "Because they are not dualling the whole route, they are actually making more accident blackspots because there will be more bits where the road narrows to single carriageway.

"As the result of a decision not to widen our bit, but widen the rest, I believe that it is only a matter of time before another bad accident happens here.

"The next one might be the one that ploughs into my house and kills my family."

A spokesman for local MP Helen Goodman, who Ms Bond has contacted with her concerns, said: "The MP has raised the constituent's concerns with the Highways Agency.

"They have informed her that they have recently carried out a survey to determine measures that may reduce the speed of vehicles passing by Ms Bond's home.

"A representative of the agency is due to visit to inform her of the outcome of this."

Meanwhile, police have cautiously welcomed the improvements on the A66.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "The A66 has been in need of an upgrade for some time, and we are pleased that this phase of the work the two improvement schemes has been carried out.

"We hope this will play a significant part in reducing road casualties, but for that to happen will also require drivers to use the road sensibly and in accordance with prevailing conditions."

Michael Straugheir, a traffic management officer with Durham Police, said: "A mix of dual and single carriageways has not caused a problem in the past, and we have no reason to believe it will be a problem in the future.

"However, as with all alterations to stretches of road, the situation will be monitored."